BleepingComputer.com: All Right, Now I'm Really Mad.

I bought 2GB of Kingston RAM at Office Depot running 667MHz, knowing that Dell's memory would cost a lot more and probably be DOA. WHen I installed it about 10 minutes ago, i checked the system specs and my 667 is running at 533. Can someone help me? This shouldn't be considered overclocking if Dell underclocks it in the first place!

If I recall, each Dell computer is set up to run at a maximum rate. RAM manufacturers make ram backward compatable so if you buy faster ram, it AUTOMATICALLY adjusts to what Dell says your system is supposed to run at.
My Dell is supposed to run at pc4200... But I bought some PC 5300, it works fine, but is running at the slower system speed.
Go to crucial.com and run their scan tool. It will tell you what memory the system runs at and what you can use.

What Roseisdad said is true. I would also like to mention, it's hard to notice a difference between ram speeds. Faster ram speeds mostly just help if your processor has a high fsb, and/or you're overclocking.

This post has been edited by Sterling14: 24 August 2008 - 05:17 PM

Thanks for the responses. After looking at some of my games, i'm even happy with 533. I can't believe I'm running Crysis at 30fps! Maxing out CoH. THis memory definitely gave me 5 fps and faster load times.

I'll just add that, if you want the RAM to run at the higher speed, you may be able adjust your bus speed in the BIOS and achieve such with stability. If you are stable and happy at current speed...I would just let it be.

It's a trial-and-error thing.

Louis